Five buildings I'd like to visit before I die

#5 - The Czech Republic National Library

I feel a little like a fraud for posting this series - firstly because I have no background, education or experience in the fields of architecture, design, engineering or aesthetics; so any opinions given will be entirely from the perspective of a layperson. Secondly, almost all the buildings I link to will assuredly be libraries, archives or other buildings of cultural/literary importance - their actual design and physical space will almost certainly be of less interest to me than what they contain, who lived there, or the circumstances under which they were built.

I can't help but feel like an even greater imposter and buffoon then for beginning the series with a building which is not only a creature of spectacle and novelty, but also one which hasn't even been completed - the National Library of the Czech Republic.

Leaving aside my peculiar interest in certain Czech authors and general preoccupation with Eastern Europe, my reasons for choosing this particular building should be pretty self-evident: it's a huge creature made of goo, sent from space to destroy Prague with its intergalactic eye lasers. Producing a schlocky b-picture about that scenario would be one thing, but permanently etching it into the skyline of one of the most well-preserved and maintained cities of the world is quite another.

Some might decry the library as a novel eyesore, constructed with no mind towards the long-term character of the city. These are both valid and almost certainly true. Leaving aesthetics aside for the moment, however, there are two factors which I think speak persuasively in defense of the Library.

Firstly, the building is on the leading edge of environmental and sustainable technology innovations - it's naturally lit, heated and ventilated; and is constructed largely from materials with a small environmental footprint. More importantly, however, the building holds an undeniable appeal to young children - I know that were I visiting Prague as a child (does finding myself in my late-twenties disqualify me from childhood?) I'd simply need to spend every waking moment exploring the slime monster (the fact that it's full of books, and that I was (am?) a huge nerd would only further entice me).

How often do we hear demagogues, academics, parents and teachers bemoan that in the age of the Internet, cellphone, television and X-Box that children have no desire to read? Leaving aside for the moment whether this is a valid concern, I think the answer to this possibly nonexistent problem is right before us - interstellar slime monsters. Fill them with books, and you needn't worry again about your children becoming a generation of philistines (let them read this 'blog, however, and you may run the risk of them becoming pretentious assholes).